Russia and Ukraine Credit Melania Trump for Oleshky Truce as Drone Strike Kills 13 in Dnipro

Oleshky, Ukraine. Russia and Ukraine both thanked US first lady Melania Trump on Thursday for her part in arranging a truce around Oleshky, a severely deprived town under Russian control, as work started on delivering food and medicine and allowing hundreds of residents to leave.

Relief effort in Oleshky

The operation is meant to ease a worsening crisis in a town that has been cut off inside a war zone since 2022. It also forms part of a diplomatic exchange in which both sides want to show US President Donald Trump that they support his peace efforts, though their motives differ.

Yana Lantratova, Russia’s human rights commissioner, said she was taking four journalists from the conservative US outlet Newsmax to the area. Her Ukrainian counterpart, Dmytro Lubinets, was also travelling to Oleshky.

At a summit in Moscow, President Vladimir Putin said aid would begin reaching civilians on Thursday and Friday, “with the support, incidentally, of the First Lady of the United States”. Lubinets offered Kyiv’s “special thanks” to Melania Trump, saying she was personally giving time and attention to the humanitarian mission and to help for civilians in Oleshky.

Deadly strike in Dnipro

Any hope of broader relief in the war, which began with Russia’s invasion almost five years ago, was quickly undermined by a drone strike in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro. Local officials said 13 people died as passengers crowded onto a commuter train at the main station. No ceasefire applied there.

The state rail company, Ukrzaliznytsia, said a jet-powered drone struck a platform where a commuter train was getting ready to leave for the nearby city of Zaporizhzhia.

Both Russia and Ukraine deny deliberately targeting civilians. Even so, attacks on trains and other civilian infrastructure have become more frequent as Ukraine’s stocks of air defence missiles have run low. Civilian deaths inside Russia have risen as well.

Diplomatic backdrop

Trump has portrayed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy as a hindrance to peace while speaking well of Putin. On Thursday Putin stressed that Russia was working on matters tied to a possible peaceful settlement of the Ukrainian crisis.

US-mediated peace talks are scheduled to restart next month in Abu Dhabi after a lengthy pause. The two sides remain far apart on the terms for ending the war.